TRANSCRIPT
Bill Clinton: Mr Putin, he’s very smart. But you know him better than most people. Yeah, I do.
Piers Morgan: What was he like behind closed doors, away from the public utterances?
Bill Clinton: Smart and remarkably – we had a really good, blunt relationship.
Piers Morgan: How blunt?
Bill Clinton: Brutally blunt.
Piers Morgan: Ever like, you know, fisticuffs?
Bill Clinton: No, but I think, you know, I think the right strategy, most of the time is – but it’s frustrating to people in your line of work – you should be brutally honest with people in private and then, if you want them to help you, try to avoid embarrassing them in public.
Now, sometimes they do things which make it impossible for you to keep quiet but by and large, I found all the people I dealt with appreciated it, if I told them the truth; how I honestly felt and what our interests were and what our objectives were.
And they also appreciated it, when I didn’t kick them around in public, for as long as I couldn’t kick them around. So, you know, that’s my experience.
Piers Morgan: Did Putin ever renege on a personal agreement he made to you?
Bill Clinton: He did not.
Piers Morgan: So behind closed doors, he could be trusted?
Bill Clinton: He kept his word.
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